The sport of racquetball has increased considerably over the past several years due to its appeal to both male and female participants, and since it is played primarily indoors enabling it to be played year round, relatively unaffected by the weather. Also, the sport provides excellent physical exercise, yet does not require a considerable amount of time and skill to achieve a satisfactory level of play in contrast to tennis, golf and handball which require a considerably greater amount of time and practice to acquire the same satisfying level of skill. Furthermore, racquetball is relatively inexpensive to play in comparison to golf since the required equipment is gym clothes, a racquet and ball.
It has been found that the sooner a novice player reaches a satisfactory level of play, greater is the likelihood that the player will continue playing the game. It is believed that a racquetball racquet having an enlarged ball striking surface constructed in accordance with our invention, which is described in greater detail below, will improve more quickly the level of play of beginning players, in addition to improving the play of the more experienced players resulting in greater enjoyment to the player. This results in more players continuing to play racquetball thereby achieving the effects of physical activity and competition throughout their life.
Various types of racquetball racquets are presently in use today and are produced by a number of manufacturers. These racquets consist of a frame formed of aluminum, steel, wood, graphite or various compositions thereof with interwoven strings of nylon and occasionally of animal gut which form the ball striking surface. However, all of these prior racquets are of a standard frame size and have the same size ball striking string area. Likewise, the weight of the racquet is generally the same with only a relatively small variance. The conventional racquetball racquet used today has an overall length of about 181/2 inches with a width of about 8 inches and has a string area of approximately 60 square inches. Although an oversized racquet of the type covered by my invention would not be approved under current American Amateur Racquet Association (AARA) rules, wherein the combined length plus width shall not exceed 27 inches, it would find great acceptance by the novice and average racquetball players with anticipation that the larger size racquet will subsequently be approved and be permitted for tournament play.
The use of oversized or enlarged tennis racquets in comparison to the heretofore recognized standard size tennis racquet, has achieved considerable success. Some examples of these enlarged tennis racquets are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,999,756; 4,151,995; 4,275,885 and 4,310,157. Although oversized tennis racquets have been used in tennis for the past several years, the requirements of a racquetball racquet are different from that of the requirements of a tennis racquet, due to the differences in the two games and the playing thereof.
Racquetball differs in numerous aspects from tennis, thereby presenting a considerable number of different criteria to be considered in the design of a racquetball racquet. The size and configuration of a tennis court is completely different from that of racquetball as well as the nature of winning a point. In tennis, the object is to hit the ball to a particular position on the court making it difficult for the opponent to reach it due to the speed and direction of the ball. Whereas in racquetball, the other player cannot normally be passed by the ball in that the ball will normally return to a position on the court where it can be hit by the opposing player due to the ball rebounding off of the floor walls and/or ceiling. This requires a player to hit a shot that will bounce more than once, on the floor, before the opposing player can reach it.
In racquetball, the racquet should be designed enabling it to get as close as possible to the walls and into the tight fit of the corners in order to hit the ball and return the opposer's shot. In tennis, there are no walls or corners with which to be concerned. Also, the technique of hitting the ball is completely different in tennis than in racquetball. In tennis, a stiff wrist is desired and the ball is either hit with a top spin or undercut to impart reverse spin to the ball. In racquetball, the wrist is loose and the ball is hit with a snapping action or stroke. In tennis, the ball is normally hit in the lower two-thirds of the string area whereas in racquetball the ball is normally hit in the upper one-third of the string area. This requires a static balance or center of gravity requirement different from that of a tennis racquet. For example, the center of gravity of one of the most popular oversized tennis racquets described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,999,756 may vary within a range of from 45 to 52 percent with respect to the center point of the racquet. More specifically, the center of gravity of this particular tennis racquet may range from 1.35 inches toward the handle providing a "head light" racquet to 0.54 inches toward the head of the frame providing a "head heavy" type of racquet. Whereas in the oversized racquetball racquet of our invention, the location of the center of gravity must trend opposite from that of an oversized tennis racquet in order to achieve the most satisfactory result and racquet performance.
Also, strength or durability of a tennis and racquetball racquet are different in that the ball velocity is substantially greater in racquetball than in tennis. In tennis, the ball impacts and court surface abrasion are major design factors, whereas in racquetball, the ball impacts plus floor or wall impacts require a very different structural concept.
All of these differences between the games of tennis and racquetball and between the oversized tennis racquet and the oversized racquetball racquet of our invention resulted in a completely different set of criteria and features that had to be resolved in arriving at the improved racquetball racquet construction of our invention.